Mayor Pledges to Examine Unsafe Streets

Back in April, after the tragic deaths of Crysta Spencer in Ward 6 and Ms. Covington in Ward 7, I asked readers to submit dangerous streets and intersections in their neighborhoods to Disctrict Matters so that I could deliver them directly to the Mayor and DDOT in attempt to prevent further needless pedestrian deaths. The Washington Post published this and I received a list of 24 intersections which residents felt needed some type of traffic control (lights, stop signs, speed bumps, cameras, etc.).

Last week I presented this list to Mayor Fenty at a community meeting on Minnesota Ave. traffic calming. The Mayor promised to look at each intersection on the list and examine them equally, regardless of ward, to see if safety improvements could be made. The dangerous intersections, as submitted by readers, can be found in the comments on my post from April 25th and listed here:

14th ST NW from Ft Stevens
5th Street NW, from Kansas Ave up through to Missouri Ave
100 Block of Chesapeake Street SW
Alabama Avenue and 18th Place SE
Buena Vista Terrance SE
C Street and 10th Street SE
C Street and Kentucky SE
Corcoran and 18th Street NW
E Street and 6th Street SE
K Street, West Virginia, and 11th Streets NE
M Street and 6th Street NW
Madison and 7th Street NW
Military Road and 14th Street NW
Minnesota Avenue and M Street SE
Missouri Ave NW between Georgia Ave and the PG county
line N Street NW between 1st Street NW and NJ Avenue NW
New York Avenue between 9th & North Capitol NW
North Carolina and 13th Street NE
Orleans Place and 6th Street NE
P Street and 5th Street NW
Pennsylvania Avenue and 7th Street NW
Q Street and 19th Street NW
Rhode Island Avenue and 15th NWSouth Carolina Avenue and 7th Street SE

The DC government cannot possibly know every single dangerous street in this city, and when a tragedy occurs, it is often too late. That's why it is so important that we as residents stay involved and let our leaders know when something needs to be fixed. When young Crysta Spencer and Ms. Covington died, it was a failure not only of our government, but of our entire community. We all have to work together to prevent these horrible accidents, so let's keep our feet to the fire, as well as our public officials'.